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After taking a subway from his Brooklyn home, the man picked up one of the seven phones yesterday around 3 p.m. and spoke with a counselor, “relaying his intention to jump from the bridge,” the authority’s Joseph Pentangelo told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
The operator called the PAPD, whose officers “quickly arrived and intercepted the man on the walkway,” Pentangelo said.
He was taken by ambulance to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center for observation.
It was the sixth “intervention” of December and the 72nd of 2014 — compared with 49 all of last year.
There have been 18 suicide leaps from the bridge this year, up from 15 in 2013.
These came after what is considered a recent GWB record, 18 suicides, that were recorded in 2012 — more than all of the other Hudson and East River crossings combined — following a decade that averaged six per year.
Ten days ago, two rookie Port Authority police officers talked an 18-year-old Cliffside Park man from jumping off the bridge. It was the second save in three months for Officer Katherine Acevedo, who teamed up with Officer Anthony Estevez — both graduates of the PAPD’s 113th class. READ MORE….
The Port Authority this summer announced plans for a nine-foot, $50 million barrier to deter would-be jumpers, following one planned at the Golden Gate Bridge in California (SEE: GWB suicide nets are good news).
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